Occupations with the most job openings for college graduates, 2004-14

Pure college occupations are those in which at least 60 percent of current workers aged 25-44 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, fewer than 20 percent have a high school diploma or less education, and fewer than 20 percent have taken college courses but do not have a bachelor’s degree.

Despite high numbers of job openings, jobseekers can face strong competition when trying to enter some of the occupations on the chart. Occupations that offer high earnings and prestige, such as management analysts, attract many qualified workers. Sometimes, the number of qualified people who want these jobs can be greater than the number of openings.

Some of the occupations on the chart, such as lawyers and physicians and surgeons, require more education than a bachelor’s degree. In other occupations, education requirements are more flexible. More than one-fourth of computer software engineers had a master’s degree in 2005, for example, but most of these workers did not have education beyond a bachelor’s degree.